


Confessions

by paladin_piper



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: F/M, Female Reader, It's rated teen for swearing and alcohol mentions but nothing else, Reader-Insert, There's background Burnie Burns/Ashley Jenkins but it's not really mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 09:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paladin_piper/pseuds/paladin_piper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You've been invited to your first Rooster Teeth podcast since joining the company, and it just so happens the employee you have a big, stupid crush on -- Joel Heyman -- is going to be on the podcast as well. Hilarity ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confessions

Today started out like any other day at work. You were editing a video – the new RT Life -- when an email ping'ed in your inbox. It was from Gus, inviting you to your first ever podcast. In the email were some general topics to familiarize yourself with, and they were all things that piqued your interest. Below that, you glanced down to see who else would be on the podcast that night: yourself, Gus, Burnie, and Joel. You mentally groaned because, surprise surprise, you had the _biggest_ crush on Joel, and now you were suddenly nervous as hell. You responded to Gus with a smile, telling him you'd be in makeup at the requested time.

Once podcast time rolled around, your heart was ready to sprout wings and fly out of your chest. Ashley teased you with a smile as she fixed your eyeliner, telling you that you had nothing to worry about. It was just a simple podcast, and she was sure that Joel would be too interested in his gold and his rants to take much notice of you. 

“Did you tell Burnie what I told you?” You asked with a nervous yet light tone, referencing a girl’s night you and a few of the other RT Ladies a few weeks ago. All of you decided to play a few round of “Never Have I Ever” and it turned raunchy pretty quickly. The only reason why all of the girls found out about your crush was because you were the only one who put down a finger when Lindsay said “Never Have I Ever… Had a crush on someone at least ten years older than me.” The girls insisted you explain yourself, and you did with a blush, admitting how you had a major fucking crush on Joel Heyman since you had first seen him in a video years ago. The girls laughed and shouted in happiness, and it quickly became all of their missions to get the two of you together. Thankfully, not much had come from that because you assumed everyone forgot, or so you thought.

Ashley shrugged with a knowing smile, brushing a hair off of your face before applying a small amount of lip gloss to your lips. “Not telling.” She said with a laugh, patting the top of our head before sending you to the set. "But go get 'em, tiger!"

You made your way up to the set, saying hello to Blaine and a few of your other live-action friends before seating yourself on the black leather couch. You tucked your legs under you, cradling your drink of choice as you pulled out your phone to turn it on silent. Joel fell next to you, a coke and whiskey in hand and his laptop tucked under his arm. He said his "hi, [Y/N]" with a soft smile, and then went to his laptop, tending to his spreadsheets. Even though the set was bustling with prep work since you were going live in a few minutes, you couldn’t have felt more awkward and alone as Joel basically ignored you. You sat on your phone, trying to push away the nerves in your chest until the recording light switched on and Gus said his introduction. When he mentioned how this was your first time on the podcast, you gave the camera an awkward wave, not realizing that you were looking at the wrong live camera. That got a chuckle out of the three men around you, and you wanted to crawl up in a ball and die.

Luckily, Burnie and Gus were incredibly receptive of you on the podcast, helping you work through your first few minutes of anxiety and get you relaxed and used to the flow of the podcast. Even Joel warmed up after a few minutes, and all of you were soon laughing at a ridiculously memory Burnie was recounting about his childhood with his older brother involving a pool table and his pet goldfish. Once the story ended, Gus began an ad read, and you took a deep breath of relief as you reached for your drink on the table. Everything was going incredibly well, and you were mentally preparing yourself to talk about Fallout once Gus was finished. 

As your hand brushed your drink's container, you felt fingers on top of yours. Looking up, you saw Joel leaning over, his cheeks pink and his dark eyes locked on yours. You both quickly realized he had made the mistake of trying to take your drink, and you were frozen as you looked into each other's eyes. He pulled away with an awkward and mumbled apology, and you were sure your entire face was on fire as you sat back up and brought the container to your lips, the main camera flickering back on.

“Guys, look at what we have here! I would say it’s young love, but Joel is a bit too old to warrant that formality.” Burnie teased. Your face went crimson, and Joel just shook his head with a soft laugh. “Oh, Burnie, if [Y/N] wanted to date someone in the office, she could have anyone she wanted. Have you seen her? Why would she settle for me?” His self-deprecating humor brought a laugh out of Burnie and Gus, but you stayed silent until you mumbled, “I would say the same to you.”

Your microphone didn’t pick up your confession, but you’re positive Joel heard you because of how wide his eyes went after you said it; once again, you flushed out of embarrassment, cursing yourself because of how easily you were flustered by this asshole with his messy hair and perfect smile. Setting your drink down on the floor, you rearranged yourself on the couch, reclining a little and you rested your elbow on the Grifball pillow. Gus began talking about Fallout 4 and whatever Bethesda had just announced concerning the iPhone app. You all had your chance to voice your displeasure with the announcement, and how it wouldn’t configure to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus’s, which all of you owned.

“It’s fucking stupid,” you said, adjusting the sleeve of your shirt as you spoke, “all of us have these larger iPhones, so why won’t they just fit the screen? Why make arrangements for the out of date phones instead of the current versions of the most popular phone in the market to date?” You shook your hands a little, and then shook your head in anger as you sat up a little. “It’s just dumb. All I want to do is intergrade my iPhone and my Fallout. Is that too much to ask for?”

You felt a hand rest on your shoulder, and you quickly noticed how close you and Joel were to each other. “[Y/N]’s right, you know. But I will say one thing: that fucking shelter whatever bullshit iPhone game is fucking stressful. I’ve tried playing it and I’ve been like,” here, Joel made several grunting noises of anger as he mimicked rage quitting and throwing his phone, and you laughed at his ridiculous noises with a smile.

“Well,” Burnie commented with a grin, “at least one of us here takes pleasure in Joel’s grunts.” Joel rolled his eyes, and you laughed. Your drink was making you a bit jumpy and erratic, and you grinned as you said, “you’re making it seem like this is the _first time_ I’ve heard him grunt like that.”

The set burst out into laughter at your obvious lie, and you joined them. It was your first funny on a podcast! Why not laugh along? The couch shifted under you as Gus began rambling about E3’s impact so far, and you looked up to see Joel moving a bit closer to you. He snatched the Grifball pillow out from under your arm and booped you on the head with it before tossing it at Gus.

“Gus, no one fucking cares about fucking E3. It’s all we’ve heard since the fucking thing happened, and I'm still kind of pissed that I wasn't allowed to go.” Joel said, bobbing his head a little as he spoke. Even Burnie agreed with Joel, and you nodded along, laughing as Gus threw the Grifball back at Joel and it missed him by a mile.

“God, Gus, you throw worse than me. We should have an RT Life where we see who's the worst throw.” You commented, fully sitting up with a grin. “Oh yeah, [Y/N]? I’ll fucking take you up on that offer! You and me, let's go!” Gus said with a challenging smile, and you were about to reply with a taunt when you felt an arm rest over your shoulders. It was Joel, and he was grinning as he spoke with his hands, “Only if I get to judge, because I _really_ want to see you lose to [Y/N], because she throws a baseball weird as hell, but it's still better than you.”

“Mother fucker, you throw a baseball weird as well!” Gus retorted, waving his hands and pointing in comical anger. You laughed, tossing your head back a little, and then when you looked back down, Gus had a finger to his earpiece. “Oh shit, Secret Service is getting word of a bomb threat!” Joel said in a fake panic, and you put a finger over your ear, moving your wrist over your mouth to imitate a Secret Service agent.

“What’s that, Sir? Agent Sorola is a major dick? Roger that.” You tried to reproduce Burnie’s Dateline Mount Fuji voice to the best of your ability, earning a laugh from the podcast crew. Joel’s arm was still around your shoulder, hot and heavy, and you mouthed _“what the fuck?”_ at him, but all he did was smile before looking at Burnie, who was speaking in his Dateline Mount Fuji voice.

“And that’s all, folks. Join us next week for the next installment of the Rooster Teeth Podcast! Will [Y/N] and Joel ever move past flirting? Will Gus ever stop being a killjoy? Will I ever learn how to do a correct outro? Find out next week, same time, same place!”

You waved bye at the camera, waiting until the red light went off to put your hand down. Almost immediately, the set cleared out, but you and Joel still hadn’t moved. He still had his arm around you, and you hadn’t noticed how much you were leaning into his body until you felt his cheek rest on top of your head. It was nice, sitting like this in silence; Joel smelt nice, and you were worn out from your first podcast. If you weren't so nervous, you probably could have fallen asleep in his loose embrace. His eyes were focused on his laptop, his free hand typing away at some Excel file, and you watched him, trying to figure out what to say whenever he finished.

Finally, Joel shut his laptop and reached out to set it on the table. His arm around you moved away, and he turned on the couch to face you. You mirrored his action, tucking a leg under you and resting your hands on your knees. Your heart was beating at a million miles a minute, and you bit your lower lip as you tried to make sense of all of the thoughts floating around in your head. Thankfully, Joel spoke first.

“Listen, [Y/N]. When you first started working here, I really had no idea what to think about you. You’re so young, so fresh, straight out of college and into a job. And I’m this old guy with crazy hair who talks with his hands and yells about things. Nothing was every really supposed to form between us, but god, you’re so fucking happy. Like, you’re always happy. How are you always so fucking happy? But it – it’s nice to see that happiness. And god, you’ve got a fucking great personality. Like, fantastic. And you’re funny, cute, and incredibly smart. I’ve seen you do things in Final Cut that I didn’t know existed. And I just… Yeah. And I guess something inside of me was like ‘ _hey asshole, guess what?’_ and this weird feeling stuck with me. When Burnie told me what happened at the party all of you girls had, what was inside of me kind of grew? I’m sorry about before, and if what I did was too much, but…” Here, Joel’s voice trailed off, and he moved his hands in an effort to try and communicate what he couldn’t say.

Your face was on fire, and you moved a hand to cover your burning cheek. Joel thought you were _cute?_ And _smart?_ His words flattered you, and you wanted to say something back to him; or at the very least, grab him by the collar of his too-big shirt and shake him, screaming “you moron, I’ve liked you since I first saw you!” But you didn’t have a chance to do that. Right as you began to open your mouth, Joel’s mouth was covering yours, his hand buried in your hair as he kissed you.

The kiss didn’t last long, and Joel pulled away with a sheepish smile. Your head was spinning, a smile plastered on your face after you quickly got over the shock of the kiss. “Holy _shit_.” You mumbled, causing Joel to break out into his silent laughter.

“That was… Really nice,” He commented, and you couldn’t help but nod in agreement with a shy laugh. A soft pause passed between the two of you, and then Joel reached out and gave your hand a soft squeeze. “Do you maybe wanna go get a drink later? Just the two of us?”

“Sure.” You said with a smile, turning your hand upwards to give his hand a soft squeeze back. “As long as you promise to wear a shirt that fits.”

“No promises.” 

“God, you’re so dumb.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is un-beta'd and I apologize for anything and everything. All of the stuff about Fallout 4 is what I've read from twitter. This is also my first-ever reader insert fic so... ???  
> The thing about Joel throwing a baseball weird is from the RT Short "Catch", and my friends and I noticed how Joel throws a baseball kind of odd.  
> I love Gus. Please don't assume I hate Gus; he's just at the tail-end of so many jokes that I had to include a few in here.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
